The Angry Young Man
by DetectiveInspectorSydney
Summary: Inara is kidnapped by the Alliance, and while she is enjoying their special brand of hospitality, she thinks about Mal in conjunction with a song. Unfortunately, I am keeping in cannon with Post-BDM, so no Book and Wash here. :( NO Rayne.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This fic is inspired by "Prelude/Angry Young Man" by the fantastic Billy Joel. I can't listen to it anymore without thinking of Inara and Mal. So these characters and lyrics belong to Joss Whedon, unless I made them up, and Billy Joel. SPOILERS: There is some confirmed backstory involving Inara having a terminal illness. I am not clear as whether or not that was thrown out the window with the show's cancellation. I don't think I will include it either way, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet….**

Inara had some time to kill.

Her curls were plastered to her neck. The silk of her robes was damp, and her face was warm. The room was dimly lit. There was nothing but her and the surrounding four off-white walls, white tiled floor, ceiling, and a most likely locked door. She was too weak to check.

It looked like the rooms she found herself in when she went in for her yearly check ups (minus the furniture).

In fact, that's exactly where she thought she was. A hospital, probably abandoned, most likely on Osiris, it was the closest planet with this kind of facility.

_Perfect, _she thought. They'd never look for her here. There's no way the Tams could risk coming home.

No. She couldn't think like that. Mal would not leave her here to die. And even if he would Kaylee wouldn't allow it. Simon might be selfish on his sister's behalf, but it was unlikely, and Kaylee and River would never stand for it.

Inara was horribly nauseous. Her head was spinning. She tried to shift her weight so, at the very least, she wouldn't vomit into her lap, but then she realized that moving only brought her flat on her back. She must have been carried in while unconscious and literally dropped on the floor. From a few feet off the ground if the forming bruises were any indication.

As if of it's own accord, her body jerked itself over to its side where she began to heave and shudder violently. Any food that she had eaten in the last however many hours was gone now, but she felt marginally better. At least after her body stopped shaking so much she was able to crawl away from the pool of sick, and the involuntary tears streaming down her face were cooling her skin.

_**BAM!**_ Someone kicked the door in which, unfortunately, hit Inara in the face. Her response was somewhere between a yelp and a groan as the ache in her forehead and nose peaked.

*"Go Shi," she heard a deep voice say, "she's vomited." There was a moment of silence, before the same voice became slightly panicked.

*"Yao Nu! Where is she" A higher younger voice responded calmly,

"Relax, I hit her with the door. She'll be fine." The older man chuckled sadistically. As Inara's vision began to return to normal, she saw two white men in gray uniforms. One slight, dark hair and eyes, the other considerably more burly with a buzz cut bleach blonde hair, with a scar just above the right of his two blues eyes. Slim Jim and Scarface it was then.

Scarface bent down and scooped her up bridal style. It was uncomfortable. His right arm dug into the bones behind her knee and his left arm pressed squarely into the middle of her back causing her torso to arch upward and her head and neck to loll towards the ground. Blood rushing to her head, and simultaneously from her nose, did not help the the nausea and bruises. She was dangerously close to choking on her own vomit.

Scarface moved heavily, clunking his weight about with each step. It did not help Inara's current physical state. Slim Jim moved lightly, hardly touching the ground as he jogged beside his partner. Through her streaming eyes Inara received the uncomfortable impression that he was leering at her and taking full advantage of every inch of exposed skin. She was accustomed to this treatment, but not to this level of vulnerability, adding the emotional to her physical trauma was making her shiver violently. Slim Jim just smiled wider.

"Don't you worry sweetheart. The after effects will wear off soon. Then I get to have some fun." She glared at him, but the overall fear factor was lessened by his obvious power over her. When she sobered up, he was going to regret that he had ever met her.

Scarface let go of her legs causing Inara to nearly slip out of his grasp, but he caught her around the arm and led her into an interrogation room, much like the one she remembered last time she'd been under Alliance custody. Walls as gray as the uniforms, black tables and chairs, harsh pseudofluorescents, cold and imposing. Scarface deposited her in a chair, and all though lying down was preferable, at least she was no longer moving. She brought her arm up to stem the blood flow. Slim Jim came up beside her and handed her a handkerchief. She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Relax pretty lady. I just didn't want you to get your lovely dress bloody," he lingered on lovely. Were Alliance always this unprofessional? Most people would respect a companion, even a criminal one, at least a little more than a common whore. He did not appear to be one of those people.

*"Na Mei Guan Shee." Inara replied demurely, forcing a signature cocky smile. Slim Jim slapped her across the face. Hard. He then retreated to the other end of the table, and opened a mid-sized file, that Inara assumed featured her. She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or insulted.

"So, you travel with Malcolm Reynolds." Inara said nothing. Slim Jim nodded. He seemed to have expected at least some resistance. "You were born on Sihnon?" Inara blinked slowly, her eyelids protesting. Slim Jim smiled in what was clearly false warmth. He should know better than to try to out act a companion. "I've been there many times. It's beautiful." Inara wanted to scoff, but she did not move. Slim Jim began to frown and Scarface growled behind her. These men were clearly impatient, and had not been well trained.

Slim Jim stood and strode over to Inara, pulling her hair back, jutting her chin up towards his face. "Malcolm Reynolds and his crew are wanted for treason. This includes you. I am under orders to get information on their whereabouts and bring them into Alliance custody at whatever cost. Now, I don't have to kill you. I don't have to torture you. But I will if that's what it takes to do my job." Inara grunted with the force it took to breathe properly.

"Why not just use truth serum?" she choked out. Slim Jim loosed her hair.

"Because. I have a feeling that your crew is going to come looking for you very soon, and I want to see the look on Captain Reynolds' face when he sees the damage his pretty doll has been through." He chuckled in a way that could only be described as cruel. He strode over to to Scarface and they seemed to confer for a moment. Inara tried to listen intently, and made herself aware of her surroundings. There was one exit, and Slim Jim's back was turned. It was foolish, but Inara bolted, and Slim Jim caught her around the wrist and threw her up against the wall. He started to punch her and kick her, every once in a while he would stop and ask her a question. Where was Mal? What else did he know about the Alliance? What was he planning? etc.

Inara took the punches. She would have fought back but the punches were coming to quickly and pretty soon she was on the floor, only to be dragged up again, and repeat. She was not overly impressed. It took awhile before a rib broke. And all the while, as Slim Jim kept at her, she couldn't help but think of Mal. Slim Jim kept asking her questions as if he knew this man. As if he were just like any other criminal. Inara could have laughed. As she fought for consciousness, lyrics came back from a very old song her great-grandfather had sung every once and awhile when she was a child. Before she'd been taken as a companion.

"..._he refuses to bend he refuses to crawl….and he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost...and he likes to be known as the angry young man."_

**A/N: This will be at least two chapters. Please review, I'm sure any suggestions you have would really help.**

***Crap/Shit**

***Demon Woman**

***In that case, never mind**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Don't own **_**Firefly**_ **or "Angry Young Man". **

River ran through Serenity, causing quite the racket. "Help! Help! Get up! The doll! The burglars took the doll from her china cabinet!" Captain Malcolm Reynolds had just been about to lie down. His crew had been laying low for quite some time since they fixed up their ship, and he was exhausted from worrying about their depleting food and fuel supplies. The one time he'd felt any rest was when he'd sat with River in the cockpit for a while and let her tell him about the adventures that the dinosaurs and she had been on earlier. He'd smiled indulgently, knowing that it wasn't so much that River thought the dinosaurs could talk, as she wanted to feel closer to Wash. She missed him just like the rest, but didn't feel comfortable telling anyone but Inara and him.

Mal jumped straight out of bed and was out of his cabin in three seconds flat. Half clothed, Kaylee and Simon were trying to get River to calm down. Zoe was up, arms crossed around her still only slightly noticeable abdomen. She looked concerned, but made no move to interfere. Jayne stood beside her mad as all get out that once again his sleep had been disturbed. He was cursing, but at least he had the sense to do it under his breath.

"River," Simon was trying, and failing to console her, "River who's the doll? Where's the cabinet?" Months of experience had made River's now infrequent episodes of nonsense, mostly translatable.

River looked up at Mal with such a defeated look and his heart tried to split in two between dropping to his stomach with grief, and leaping into his throat with desperate fear.

"Inara," he half whispered before tearing through the cluster of people, nearly knocking Kaylee over.

"What? Cap'n!" the little mechanic called after him, but he had no time to answer. Racing along the catwalk, it didn't even take ten seconds for Mal to reach Inara's shuttle. He banged on the door. There was no answered. The sound of skin slamming metal echoed through the cargo hold. Inara had taken the shuttle planetside to buy some more incense. He'd received a wave that she'd met up with an old friend, and couldn't pass up dinner. He'd tried to let it roll off his back at the time, but had been admittedly jealous.

"Inara are you in there?" Even as he said it, he knew she wasn't. He quickly punched in the keycode, but the door wouldn't open. The shuttle had not returned.

"*Ta Ma Duh," he screamed. Turning, he realized that the whole crew, or what was left of it anyways, was standing behind him, pale looking.

"Cap'n. What is it?" Kaylee whimpered. If Mal's heart hadn't already broken, Kaylee's face finished the job. Summoning all the Sergeant mentality and instincts he could, he turned to River.

"**Lien Mohn?" he asked. The reader nodded, tears brimming.

"River, why don't you go lie down," Simon made to pull her towards the infirmary. River shook her head and wrenched free.

"I- She's trying. The doll will break." Mal's gut tightened as a whirlwind of gruesome images twirled past his mind's eye.

Simon made to guide River towards the infirmary. "River, maybe you should lie down."

"No. I need her here." Mal, stopped him with the very force in his voice and focused squarely on River. "Now , tell me little Albatross. What makes you so gorram sure the Alliance's got Inara?"

"Can't feel her no more. Gone dark.." River whispered. Mal groaned, trying not to imagine that meant that his _(girlfriend?lover?partner?)_ was dead.

"Why didn't they come in after the rest of us? Why just 'Nara?" Jayne made a good point. River smiled in grim satisfaction.

"Didn't know where to look. Couldn't get past moonbrain and Lady Dinosaur anyhow." Jayne shrugged.

Zoe returned River's glance of affection. Mal scrubbed his face with the palm of his right hand, trying for composure.

"River, you got any idea where they might've taken her?" River glanced at Simon now, fear spreading across her innocent looking face.

"Osiris."

* * *

Inara lay on her back in the cell she'd woken up in perhaps six hours ago. There was probably a fair amount of internal bleeding, plus some pretty nasty gashes outside too.

Well, if this was going to be her last night out in the 'Verse, Inara wanted to leave something behind for her family. Her love.

Carefully, with her right index finger, Inara dabbed a blood from a fairly enthusiastic headwound, and began tracing letters in english upon the tiled floor.

* * *

Way far out in the black, what was left of Inara's family had moved into the kitchen. Simon stood with his arms around Kaylee, who was trying not to cry profusely into his chest. River had moved away from them to lay on the table, trying to ignore her brother's persistently racing calculations. Zoe sat stone faced by the table, arms perpetually folded across her chest. She was calculating as well, but was much calmer and collected about it. The little baby was just a whisper inside her, the brain still trying to develop. Jayne radiated anger as he stood behind Mal.

Mal was pacing at the head of the table. His brain was calculating but the noise was magnified a thousand fold by blind panic. Quite frankly, this was all too much for the reader, so she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and raises herself to be standing atop the splintering tabletop.

"We can reach Osiris in eight hours," her voice was low, but loud enough that she breaks through Mal's cyclical thoughts. "But we need a plan." She then turned to Zoe, who knew that River had been following her battle strategies

"Do you know where they've taken her," River shook her head.

"Not quite. I don't know them, they're harder to read, and they're far away. I'm reaching. But Osiris makes sense." River shot a furtive glance at Mal, who looked to be giving her his full attention before looking at Simon's clenched jaw, "It's a gut feeling. They're definitely Alliance, but they're green as they come. She turned to face Mal again. "They want you." Mal nodded. He hadn't thought it could be anything else.

"Alright. We'll set course for Osiris. Doc, you're with me, we're gonna check out the cortex, see if we can find someplace they're like to've took Inara." He stood and left the room. Simon nodded. River could tell he was worried about going back to Osiris, very, very scared. He shifted so that his hands grasped Kaylee's shoulders steadily and she looked up at him. There was a brief second where they read each other's faces, Simon making sure that he could safely leave Kaylee with Zoe, Kaylee making sure he could take River with Mal and him without turning into a firey ball of rage. Simon then helped Kaylee sit in a chair next to Zoe and followed Mal out of the room. River quietly left the kitchen, feeling her brother turn back to look at his ***bao bei before following her and Mal. Jayne headed for the cargo hold, probably to lift weights.

Zoe lifted her left hand and gently began rubbing circles across Kaylee's back. Kaylee squeezed her tight and tried to wipe her nose on her forearm. "'M sorry. I shouldn' be carryin' on like this. Not as if the Cap'n ain't worried enough as it is." Zoe cocked her head slightly. If she had not heard the sound of her own voice and remembered thinking the words, she might have believed it was really Hoban Washburne speaking.

"It's okay to cry when you're scared." Kaylee's eyes widened a little, but she half smiled back in thanks.

* * *

Mal and Simon were up on the bridge trying to scout out likely places the Alliance would hold a prisoner. They were both getting impatient.

"I don't know where they would hide her! The only experience I have with infiltrating an Alliance facility are the Academy and the hospital on Ariel, and it's not like they would put their super secret torture hideout on a map!" Mal's eyes flicked briefly to Simon on the word torture. Simon immediately regretted his choice of words. River had been sitting in the co-pilot seat, fingers to temples, eyes closed. It was very stereotypical, but it did help her concentrate. The word hospital had stirred something familiar. River shot to her feet, eyes open.

"Back! She's back! Faint-but definitely hospital." Her speaking was a bit disjointed as she shouldered her big brother out of the way and took over the cortex. Osiris, abandoned hospitals. She made allowances for what parts of the planet would have been closest to Inara. It was a guess, but a good one. Surprisingly, only one name popped up. Our Lady of Charity on Cho Ave. She stepped back and let the two men see her handiwork. "I'll find Zoe and Jayne. We reach Osiris in 7 and a half hours. Better start thinking."

**So, I know I said two chapters, maybe more like four. Moral of the story is, don't trust me about chapter lengths, widths, are updates. This took quite a lot of thinking.**

**Paz,**

**Sydney**

**P.S. Review please! Thank you for all the favorites and positive feedback!**

***Damn it!**

****Alliance**

*****Sweetheart**


End file.
